MONTGOMERY -- Leaders of Alabama Arise today called on lawmakers to pass a plan that would let voters decide whether to erase the 4-percent state sales tax on groceries and over-the-counter drugs, which would save taxpayers an estimated $326 million a year.

But the plan also would erase part of the state constitution that lets individuals deduct from their taxable state income the federal income taxes they paid, which would boost state income-tax collections by an estimated $485 million a year.

The net tax increase of $159 million a year would go to the Education Trust Fund.

The plan, House Bill 45 by state Rep. John Knight, D-Montgomery, would take effect only if passed by the Legislature and then approved by voters in a state referendum.

Speaking at a rally at the State House, Forrister said the plan would make many higher-income Alabamians pay more in taxes, which he said would level the playing field.

He pointed to a study by the non-profit, non-partisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy that said that in Alabama in 2007, for non-elderly taxpayers:

--- Middle-income families, those making between $26,000 and $46,000, paid 9.5 percent of their incomes in state and local taxes.

--- The top 1 percent of families by income, those making $384,000 or more, paid 4.0 percent of their incomes in state and local taxes.

--- The next top 4 percent of families by income, those making $153,000 to $384,000, paid 4.9 percent of their incomes in state and local taxes.

''That's an upside-down tax system. And Rep. Knight's bill would do something about that," Forrister said. ''Asking the richest Alabamians to pay at least the same share as the rest of us is just common sense."

Knight has tried for many years to pass plans similar to House Bill 45, but failed. Some top-ranking legislators predicted this year would be no exception.

''I don't see a willingness of the Legislature to raise taxes on a large segment of the Alabama population" that would pay more in income taxes than it would save in sales taxes, said state Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur.